GERMANTOWN, Maryland, May 17, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, today announced the formation of Hughes Network Systems Australia Pty. Ltd. (Hughes Australia), demonstrating the company's commitment to serve this strategic and rapidly growing market, particularly in the area of Ka-band satellite technology and services.

We congratulate the Australian government on its mission to bridge the digital divide across this vast and beautiful country, said Pradman Kaul, CEO of Hughes. Satellite is the ideal technology to bring high-speed Internet services to homes and offices affordably even in the least populated areas, and establishing this office means we can more actively engage in helping fulfill that mission. We intend to promote the implementation of our most advanced broadband satellite systems and services, building on our global leadership serving customers in over 100 countries, and operating on more than 20 satellites, including our own Ka-band SPACEWAY 3 satellite in North America, the world's first with on-board switching and routing.

Bahram Pourmand, Executive Vice President, International of Hughes, commented, This is an important next step for us in this growing region as part of our global services strategy, positioning us to expand on our successful 20 year plus record of supplying satellite broadband technology to major operators in Australia. We look forward to work with Australian partners and to share our broadband satellite operating know-how and experience gained from our service companies in North America, Europe, India, and Brazil, and through a rapidly growing network of independent service providers in other parts of the world.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers. HughesNet(R) encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. Its broadband satellite products are based on global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU standards organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A and GMR-1. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.2 million systems to customers in over 100 countries.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. . For additional information, please visit http://www.hughes.com.

Hughes, HughesNet, SPACEWAY, and Jupiter are trademarks of Hughes Network Systems, LLC.

SOURCE: Hughes Network Systems, LLC

CONTACT: Judy Blake, Hughes, +1-301-601-7330, judy.blake@hughes.com; orDonna Armstrong, Brodeur Partners, +1-202-775-2650, darmstrong@brodeur.com